Charles Abani, United Nations Resident Coordinator
This year’s International Day of Peace was held yesterday in Accra with a call on Ghanaians not to take the peace the country is enjoying for granted.
According to the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator, Ghana, Charles Abani, the scourge in the conflict in some West African states must not be allowed in Ghana, hence the need to jealously guard it for sustainable development to flourish.
“Peace is the fundamental tool to every country’s developmental needs, it is the rocket that fuels development, absence of it stagnates socio-economic advancement and retards growth meaning sustainable development cannot be achieved without peace,” he added.
September 21 each year has been set aside by the United Nation as the International Day of Peace. It is a day devoted to commemorate and strengthen the ideals of peace both within and among peoples and nations of the world.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.”
Mr Abani indicated that a peaceful society is where justice for all strives and commended the National Peace Council (NPC), for the commitment and dedication that saw Ghana emerging victorious at the 2020 elections adding “its NPCs yeoman’s job that made Ghana become the 2nd most peaceful country in Africa.”
The UN Resident Co-ordinator urged the country to remain resolute and collectively address the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Mr Abani called on the government to create an enabling environment for peace to thrive, by distributing resources equally, strengthening institutions and engage groups at all levels in peace processes in order to give the citizenry confidence to go about the normal activities peacefully.
The Executive Secretary of NPC, George Amoh said while the world continues to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens of the world are being inspired to think creatively to help everyone recover better and build resilience to transform the world into a more peaceful, just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable and healthier place.
He said even though the 2021 Global Peace Index (GPI) Report, ranked Ghana as the second (2nd) most peaceful country in Africa and 38th in the world out of 163 countries reviewed, the country could not go to sleep indicating that, the threats against this feat was not far from Ghana, because of political vigilantism and the resultant electoral violence omnipresent in the country’s elections.
The Paramount Chief of Asokore Mampong, Nana Dr K.B. Asante on behalf of traditional authorities warned against conflict and urged the citizenry to live in peace.